Parliament avoids 'own-goal' on freedom of information

Filibustering opponents of the bid by MPs to exempt Parliament from the Freedom of Information Act have effectively killed off the proposal (1,2). It had been argued that the amendment was necessary to avoid MPs' constituency correspondence from being subject to disclosure. The sceptical perspective was that in fact MPs would rather that their expenses claims were not open to public scrutiny - constituents' details are already exempted from disclosure (1,2,3). The unedifying episode stands as further evidence that most politicians think FoI is a great idea... so long as its applied only to other people. This cynicism, if given effect, could only have energised the image of politicians as worthy of paltry public trust.